The Spirituality of Physical Health

I was excited to see today that my latest article is the featured article on the Youth Specialties website! It’s something I wrote for their April article series on taking care of ourselves. Anyway, here’s the first part, follow the link at the end to get the rest and let me know what you think!

It’s strange to me to realize that one of the most intensely spiritual times of my life was the eight months I was competing for the big prize on season three of NBC’s the Biggest Loser. Honestly, I went into the experience with no connection in my mind between the spiritual and the physical. I thought taking care of myself as a pastor meant regular time in the Word, quiet times, keeping my spiritual walk on track, but I came out of those months with an entirely different outlook.

It turned out I had an inner Gnostic hiding in my belief system. Not quite in the same way as those the Apostle Paul railed against, but still, there was a definite separation of the spiritual and physical in my mind. I put my priority on the soul, that eternal part of me, and ignored the value of the physical, temporal side of my being. But I think the truth is something far different; that God has designed us to be healthy spiritually AND physically, and we experience a fullness with Him when those two are in alignment that just doesn’t compare to anything else.